Project - Open Data and Interactive Community Mapping: Empowering Local Community Tourism

The Tourism sector in the Caribbean faces some systemic challenges, including the dominance of the sector by large properties. Small operators have an inherent disadvantage due to lack of financial resources, organizational capabilities and visibility. Indirect consequences of this marginalization includes high leakage rates and diminished linkages with other sectors in the domestic economy. Participatory community tourism can help to create a more sustainable tourism sector.
Community Based Tourism provides a unique setting for a bottom-up, demand-driven Open Data Initiative, that engages the local actors in the community as major contributors to the production and publishing of crowdsourced open data and indigenous content that could become a catalyst for participatory economic development.

Project Scope / Description

As the global tourism landscape evolves, there is an emerging market for an alternative tourism product that is heritage-, cultural- or nature-based and thrives on visitor-community interaction, exploration and exchange. This so-called community-based tourism creates opportunities for empowering local communities as sustainable businesses, by developing, marketing and exposing their natural culture, talents, passion and potential to the world and is a key component of Jamaica’s sustainable tourism future.
This project will combine official government open data with crowdsourced interactive map data and indigenous content produced in local communities to enhance the visibility and inclusiveness of community tourism. The goal is ultimately to help community members working in collaboration with government agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), and development partners to harness the collective wisdom, knowledge and initiative of these communities to play a greater participatory role as drivers of community development. The specific initiative will target 2 Pilot communities as Proof of Concepts.

Regional and International Partners

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